Honorary Professorship: Shirley Leitch

Shirley Leitch has been made an Honorary Professor in the College of Humanities & Social Science.

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150112 Shirley Leitch

Professor Leitch is Dean and Professor of Communication at the Australian National University in Canberra.

In 2011, the 'Guardian' named Professor Leitch one of the top 10 social media influencers in Australian higher education for her blog and Twitter posts from @ShirleyLeitch.

She has written more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and held more than $5 million in national competitive grants. She has undertaken senior advisory roles for government and industry and contributed to numerous government reviews.

Professor Leitch's research is focused on public discourse and change, including engagement and communication in relation to controversial science. Her current projects include a book on social media, commissioned by Routledge, and an Australian Research Council Discovery project on the communication strategies of the mining industry.

Her previous roles in Australia and New Zealand include Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic at Swinburne University, Dean of Commerce at the University of Wollongong and Pro Vice-Chancellor of Public Affairs at the University of Waikato.

She also held academic posts at the University of Auckland, Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington, and is an A-ranked scholar under New Zealand's Performance-Based Research Fund research assessment system.

At Swinburne University she led the Socially Sustainable Technologies Flagship in the Institute of Social Research and was the founding chair of Online Education Services Ltd, a successful joint venture with online employment and education business SEEK Ltd.